Deadline: Hollywood again is being accused of “white-washing” roles originally written as Asian characters. The latest incident is on Ridley Scott’s The Martian, in which white actress Mackenzie Davis stars as Mindy Park, who’s identified as a Korean-American scientist in the book the film was based on.
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It wasn't until recently that I even became acquainted with the term "whitewashing", but it seems that this problematic practice is either increasing in frequency or people are finally starting to notice it.
To me it seems like it might be a tricky line to thread between casting the best actor for a role and casting the role in the appropriate ethnicity. But I believe that a casting director should try first to look at the pool of actors which would represent the character correctly, and if they absolutely cannot find anyone who is right should then look to other places. But given the number of talented performers of every ethnicity there are, I highly doubt it would be hard to find an actor that suited the part.
Even more than movies based on. fictional stories such as The Martian, the problem of whitewashing becomes painfully apparent in movies about historical events. I am talking, of course, about the recent uproar regarding the casting of the movie Stonewall in which the role of the person who threw the first brick in the Stonewall riots was cast as a white cis male. The actual person was a black trans woman. That kind of blatant white washing goes beyond the question of "the best performer for the part" to a point of blatant discrimination against minorities. It is worth noting that the Stonewall movie was boycotted by the trans community and its allies and tanked at the box office.
Sigh. This issue comes up once more. I don't believe for a second that there's a lack of talent among Asian-American actors. Often times, Asian-American actors don't get cast for parts because they appear to be "too passive" or "too nice." I'm sick of crap like this because it's clear that the authors of these comics and stories clearly wrote the characters to be Asian-American or Asian-Indian for a REASON. Nothing written into a story like that is an accident. Racial diversity is definitely a topic of importance in this day and age and it's important to reflect that in the entertainment that we see. This case makes me think of an Asian-American actor named Chloe Bennet who was once named Chloe Wang. She purposely changed her last name to Bennet because she was having trouble being casted for having a clearly Asian surname! How absolutely preposterous is that?!
Whitewashing is absolutely terrible. Not only is it totally racist, but it also takes a great deal away from the realism of the story. For example, if Emma Stone is to play a Hawaiian woman, when you see the character, all you think is 'that's emma stone' and there is no realism, only white actors telling a story that might not be for them to tell. But that's not the biggest issue, nor is whitewashing in general. The biggest issue in my opinion is the lack of good roles written for not only Asian Americans, but also any actor of color. This article discussed all the characters that were originally asian that were whitewashed, pretty much all of these characters are stereotypical asian characters. If casting directors were to stop whitewashing, that would be a huge step in the right direction, but in my opinion, an even bigger step would be to start writing actual parts for actors of color. No more stereotypes and typecasting. This is such a huge issue in Hollywood, and it's definitely a good sign that people are starting to notice what's going on. Once the problem is noticed, we can start to work towards change.
I'm sick of white-washing and I'm sick of people saying that the white person was the best person for the role. That is absolutely false and the biggest piece of crap cop-out answer I've ever heard. Just because you can't get out of your caucasian-centric head doesn't mean that all of us should have to watch yet another white man and white woman do the stereotypically heteronormative dance. If you look at Hamilton right now, they have a wide range of races playing primarily white roles, which Miranda credits as being because this is the makeup of our world today, as opposed to the mainly-white it was back then. It also irks me when they choose to ignore racial notes in fiction movies especially. These movies are something that someone literally made up out of their own head. Why do you feel the need to change what they wrote? Why do you feel that everyone has to be white because, news flash, they don't.
Why are there a ridiculous amount of white people in every form of entertainment? Why are people of color only ever stereotypical character parts? Why are people of color only main characters in movies ABOUT race? It is 2015, and at the past Academy Awards ceremony, 92.9% of nominees were white. How is the film industry of a "melting pot" country only represented by white people? There have been so many outstandingly stupid instances of whitewashing in recent movies. For example, the film Exodus, which was released last year, starred Christian Bale as Moses, who was a very not-white Biblical figure. Whitewashing is just such an enormously unnecessary thing that I'm amazed it's still such a problem. Dear Hollywood, please stop erasing people of color.
Okay honestly, I can understand this issue pretty well because I see it happen everyday in Purnell. I walk around and only see white people and black people and basically every other race completely shut down and ignored. I don’t understand, that is not how art works. We cannot thrive as a “top-ranking” drama school if we disregard huge swaths of people, we can’t grow if we are this separated. The thing is, I don’t understand where this extreme prejudice came from. What is the stereotype that Asians can’t act? I’ve never heard of it and I’ve never seen an example of it. I don’t know how Hollywood (along with other institutions) has kept this unspoken tradition going for such a long time. It’s been this way for as long as I can remember, why has it only become an issue in the recent news? I don’t know why the Asian community hasn't spoken up yet, they deserve to.
White-washing in the media is something that needs to be talked about way more than it is right now. So many people don't see any issue with the fact that almost every play and movie that gets released has either an all-white cast, or a cast with a "token minority". When movies are marketed as "diverse" they tend to only include white and Black people, with Asian-Americans being completely ignored. You would think that with all of the social justice movements rising up that people would be making more of an effort to erase this issue, but only a handful of people have. Like Burke said, the stereotype that Asians can't act is completely ridiculous. Some of the most talented actors and artists I've met have been Asian-American, which is something that I wish Hollywood would acknowledge. Representation is extremely important, and by changing the race of the characters you eliminate this.
I simply don't understand the motive of directors time and time again to turn specifically Asian roles into white ones. yes, I understand that there aren't many Asian "superstars". yes, I'm sure Jessica Chastain and Scarlett Johanson will bring in the big bucks. but, perhaps if directors such as Ridley Scott, who has a reputation of white washing roles, were to see past what he has said in the past that white stars bring in more customers, American audiences would grow accustomed to an Asian American actor in a leading role. the perception of Asian Americans today is continually perpetuated by an age old Hollywood stereotype that has been in movies up until even now. Holly Golightly's landlord to Long Duckdong, and even recent characters in Adam Sandler movies and in popular media, Asians have been depicted as nerds, as a comical charicature- not a movie character to take seriously. I hope sincerely that this trend will stop. To be an Asian American child and see almost no one who looks like you starring in lead roles is disheartening- and brings one to whitewashing themselves to be more like who media provides.
Far too often we see this trend of whitewashing the main role and then having small ensemble roles being filled by minority actors. Claire previously mentioned the film Exodus: Gods and Kings, which cast Christian Bale as Moses, Joel Edgerton as Ramses, and Aaron Paul as Joshua. All of these characters would have been people of color in biblical times, but were instead cast as white. This article mentions this happening in The Martian as well, by whitewashing the main female role and then filling the ensemble with Asian actors as if that somehow makes the whitewashing any better. Continuing this trend only serves to reinforce the idea that Asian actors and other actors of color are only good for supporting or ensemble roles, and this is especially unacceptable in stories that clearly feature these characters.
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